Free Republic

Flipping a gun for a price higher than one paid now may turn anyone into a dealer, making any such sale unlawful if it does not involve all the licensing and paperwork that govern gun dealers.. On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks. Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of”...

Surveillance footage captured the moment one New York City man brought out a katana blade and swiped at group of men during a fight he said started when the gang urinated on his building and hurled racial slurs at him and his brother. Brothers John and Max Ong said the fight broke out outside of Max's Elizabeth Street building in Chinatown when a group of five men started urinating on the building on October 10, 2020. Video showed during the fight John brought out a katana blade and slashed one of the men causing nerve and tendon damage. Max told...

A teenage boy was killed in a shooting that took place during a massive brawl involving nearly 50 teens. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) confirmed the fatal shooting occurred just before 4 p.m. “Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives are responding to the 10800 block of Western Avenue, in the unincorporated city of Los Angeles regarding a shooting death investigation. The incident occurred on Monday, April 15, 2024, at 3:49 p.m.,” LASPD said in a statement. As deputies arrived in response to the chaos, they found the victim, a teenage male, lying on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds....

Californians are arming up for self-defense as the U.S. Border Patrol carries out street drop-offs of illegal immigrants in and around cities like San Diego. The New York Post reported that “roughly 125,000 migrants have been released onto the streets in the San Diego area since September,” and many area residents are reacting by purchasing firearms and ammunition for themselves and their families. Cory Gautereaux owns a gun store, Firearms Unlimited California, in northeast San Diego and he has seen business increase as more and more illegals are let loose on the streets. Gautereaux said, “The problem for people that...

This is the shocking moment a Good Samaritan attempted to gun down an alleged carjacker before being mowed down and killed by the man. Jonathan Adam Lecompte, 38, died after being struck and thrown into the air by the stolen vehicle after he fired four shots at a carjacker outside a Burger King. The incident happened last month in Lumberton, North Carolina, after police say Ricky Alex Driggers, 28, stole a vehicle and then hit Lecompte. Authorities charged Driggers with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted common law robbery, larceny of a motor vehicle and felony fleeing to elude. Footage...

The shooting of a bicyclist along a Lancaster County road in March in a road dispute was justified, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office announced on Friday. The shooting was reported about 4:20 p.m. on March 13, on Fruitville Pike near the intersection with Delp Road in Manheim Township, the DA’s office said. On that day, Robin Megill, 33, of Lancaster, was riding a bike on Fruitville Pike in the lane of travel with multiple vehicles backed up. The driver directly behind Megill beeped their horn, police said, prompting Megill to stop in the middle of the roadway with no...

As a ninth-degree black belt, Diane Reeve Kirby is prepared to make any man who attacks her regret it. But she has no illusions about how far her 35 years of training will take her. "Typically a man is going to be bigger and stronger than a woman. And that's just a fact we have to live with," Kirby says. Likewise, women taking classes at Kirby's Action Self-Defense are quickly disabused of any Scarlett Johansson butt-kicking fantasies they may harbor. "What I teach is a one-shot deal," Kirby tells me as we sit in the kitchen of her Plano, Texas,...

An 85-year-old Idaho woman shot and killed an intruder in her home in what a county prosecutor called "one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have ever heard of." Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley said in a case review that the woman, identified Wednesday as Christine Jenneiahn, acted in self-defense and ruled it was a case of justifiable homicide. "That Christine survived this encounter is truly incredible," Jolley wrote. "Her grit, determination, and will to live appear to be what saved her that night. [snip] While Condon was searching downstairs, she dragged the wooden chair to which she...

Colorado Democrats are pushing an 11 percent excise tax on gun and ammunition sales, as well as numerous other California-style gun controls. There is a public hearing on the excise tax proposal today, and Colorado Springs firearms instructor Ana Flanell is urging the public to rally against the tax. On Easter Sunday she posted to X: “Join me at the Capitol tomorrow to testify against this “sin” tax. Self-defense is our right and we should not be taxed an outrageous 11% to exercise our Second Amendment rights. I’ve included a screenshot below of what to select when signing up. Let’s...

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) gave us another amusing demonstration of his ability to humiliate Joe Biden’s unqualified judicial nominees during Wednesday's confirmation hearing. United States District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois, who has been nominated by Joe Biden for a spot on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, had previously signed a brief supporting a ban on "assault weapons" in Illinois state courts in the 2010s, yet, when he asked her to define "assault weapons,” she couldn’t. “You said, ‘assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate...

CHICAGO — Prosecutors say two Chicago men robbed a construction crew, exchanged gunfire with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy at the scene, fled, then returned to fire another shot, only to have one of the victims pull out a gun and open fire on them, too. No injuries were reported. And, according to court records, one of the men was eyed as a suspect in a series of robberies last fall but ended up being charged only with a misdemeanor. He’s also on “first-time weapon offender probation” for a 2022 gun case. The robbery occurred on March 1 in the 11500...

There's only so much outrage left in the tank on a sunny Friday afternoon, but wow this is just insane in the membrane. An independent investigation into the school shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas was commissioned by the city of Uvalde in 2022. Yesterday, the results of the investigation were released to the public during a city council meeting. The gist of the new report is that police on the scene did nothing wrong. Former Austin Police Department detective Jesse Prado examined the actions of each Uvalde police officer as they responded to the deadliest school shooting...

A Clark County man was entitled to argue self-defense when he intentionally shot toward a person, and was not required to show he intended to kill or harm the man who threatened him, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.A divided Supreme Court vacated the felonious assault conviction of Tyler Wilson for his altercation at a Springfield gas station in 2021. At trial, Wilson was acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of felonious assault after he fired a shot at Billy Reffett. The shot struck the window frame of Reffett’s truck, near his head. The trial judge refused to instruct...

16 Republican AGs seek answers from Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf... ... debanking ... Wells Fargo is pushing the Biden administration's anti-gun and anti-traditional energy policies and discriminating against customers who don't fall in line with their political beliefs," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen... As attorney general, it's my job to protect Montanans from discriminatory business practices. I will continue to investigate and fight against any illegal actions that could impact Montana businesses and consumers." ... Wells Fargo unexpectedly closed the business and personal accounts of Bradon Wexler, the owner of Florida-based firearms dealer Wex Gunworks, with a vague explanation...

Gun laws in the Philippines aren't as atrocious as many other countries in southeast Asia, but they're still wildly draconian compared to most states in the U.S. There are an estimated 4 million gun owners in the country, but in order to lawfully possess a gun owners have to jump through numerous government-imposed hoops like psychological testing and training mandates, and some guns that are commonly owned here are off-limits to the average Filipino. This week, however, the Philippine National Police announced that soon civilians will be able to purchase and possess semi-automatic rifles; a major change to the country's...

Virginia’s House passed a ban an “assault weapons” ban last week and the Senate followed suit on Wednesday of this week, which means an “assault weapons” ban is now headed to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) desk. Breitbart News reported that the ‘assault weapons’ legislation, House Bill 2 and companion bill Senate Bill 2, targets semiautomatic centerfire rifles and semiautomatic centerfire pistols with threaded barrels and semiautomatic shotguns, if the shotguns have “a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the shotgun … the ability to accept a detachable magazine … [or] a fixed magazine capacity in excess of...

A recent Lifeway survey of Protestant pastors shows that armed congregants protect more than 50% of protestant churches. While these security arrangements vary in their level of sophistication on a church-by-church basis, nearly the same number of pastors who report the use of armed congregants report that there is an intentional plan in place to prepare for threats posed by an active shooter. Though various state and local laws currently regulate and limit the use of concealed carry weapons by church security teams in various locale, a proposed federal law would criminalize the preparations made by many armed church security...

In Florida, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle has ruled that the federal law prohibiting people from possessing firearms inside post offices is unconstitutional. The ruling is based on the 2022 Supreme Court ruling New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen recognized a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.The case concerned Emmanuel Ayala, a U.S. Postal Service truck driver, who had a concealed weapons permit and held a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun in a fanny pack for self-defense. When police tried to stop him, he ran and struggled with officers. While dismissing the...

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Contrary to concerns from some local leaders, a new study shows a decrease in gun crimes across six of Ohio’s eight largest cities following the implementation of the state’s “constitutional carry” law. The research, conducted by the Center for Justice Research (CJR) in partnership with Bowling Green State University, analyzed data from June 2021 to June 2023, covering a year before and after the law went into effect in June 2022. It focused on crimes involving firearms, verified gunshot-detection alerts, and the number of officers struck by gunfire. The findings revealed: Overall Decline: Across all eight cities,...

A woman in Texas who shot dead a 14-year-old boy that tried to break into the home she shares with her four daughters has said the incident left her 'devastated'. Aleah Wallace saw Devin Baker attempting to open her eight-year-old girl's bedroom window in Fort Worth on December 14 and fatally shot him. 'I'm devastated that he was 14. I hate that. I literally do. And I'm so sorry. But at that point, I had to think about my babies,' she told Fox 4. Police have not filed any charges against her over the shooting but the case has been...